Kids Culinaire

“After an overwhelming response last year, the festival of Healthy and Happy food – Kids Culinaire, is back with lots more to offer.

An initiative of Pilcrow Communication, Kids Culinaire is India’s first and only fun food festival for children. The idea was born out of a need felt by the founders of Pilcrow, Ratika van Noord Bhatnagar and Rohini Mathur, to revive the days when malls, mobile games, internet devices didn’t exist and families enjoyed quality time together, picnics and the outdoors.

Kids Culinaire has therefore been planned keeping parents, caregivers and little ones in mind and is full of fun workshops, interesting information, exciting activities and cool contests. The idea is not to say “don’t eat fast food” or “don’t eat cookies”, the focus is on balance and to get the children interact with food in a fun way so they are able to make healthier choices. Through this festival, the hope is to raise awareness about some relevant concerns around food today such as lifestyle diseases, food allergies, proper hygiene, recycling, etc..

The 1st edition of Kids Culinaire in February 2015 saw families come together as a wonderful bonding experience. The several happy photographs of parents taking their children through the food tours and showing them the various wonderful elements that make up the food groups. Watching chef Ranveer Brar milk the cow at the dairy section was a special treat. Leafing through pictures of parents and grandparents cheering on children during contests, or listening to a story together under a tree, or just sitting and eating together as a family, made us very proud to have brought this event to life, adds the founders of Kids Culinaire.

This year, the organisers have introduced some interesting new activities while retaining the most popular zones from last year. At the Demo and Contest area, they welcome back Chef Saransh Goila, India’s youngest celebrity chef, Food Blogger Smita Srivastava, author of Fun Foods for Fussy Eaters, and introduce Amrita Raichand, model and chef of popular TV show “Mummy ka Magic”. The story telling gets more interactive with Kathashaala, a storytelling institute which specializes in the use of performing arts. Food tours and the Fun Zone get bigger and better, and an engaging and relevant activity called “from Garbage to Garden” has been introduced with fun workshops on creating composte from kitchen waste and growing your own vegetable garden, conducted by Edible Routes. Entry to the event is ticketed to ensure a safer environment for families with children, but participation in these fun activities is free once inside.

The 2nd edition of Kids Culinaire is planned on 20th and 21st February at PSOI gardens, Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri.

Anubhav Sapra is an avid foodie! He is a Founder but proudly calls himself a Foodie-in-chief at Delhi Food Walks. He is also a street-food and Indian regional cuisine connoisseur and loves to write about street-food.